Vogelsang Church
The Vogelsang Church is a Lutheran church in Stolberg from 1647/1648 . It is named after the so-called Vogelsang, the name of the hallway in the eastern part of the old town of Stolberg. Its simplicity and modest architecture reflect the limited resources of the young community in the 17th century. The church is the oldest Lutheran church in the area between Stolberg and Cologne .
prehistory
Stolberg's residents of the Lutheran faith did not have their own house of worship in the 16th century. Meetings took place in secret. When the lord of the castle Johann von Efferen made his castle chapel available to the Protestants in 1592, it was a big step for the few Protestant believers in Stolberg. Until then, only a Söller in the neighboring Kupferhof Enkerei had served as a makeshift solution . This changed again when the lord of the castle died in 1606 and his successor Odilia von Harff returned the chapel to the Catholics. It was possible to use the chapel until 1608, but after that services were held again in the enkerei.
The small Lutheran congregation decided to build a stone church, but the financial possibilities let the project fail for the time being. Stolberg's Lutheran congregation had had preachers continuously since 1611, but when Pastor Ludwig Halm died in 1647 after 34 years of service, Stolberg was orphaned. In desperation, the community turned to Princess Anna geb. Margravine of Baden, Countess of Waldeck, mistress of Kinzweiler Castle near Eschweiler . She left Stolberg to her palace pastor Johannes Erasmus Blum († March 8, 1683 in Amsterdam ).
Pastor Blum saw only one way out. He wanted to collect money through a collection that would enable the building of a church. Equipped with letters of supplication and powers of attorney, the twenty-four-year-old priest began his travels at the end of May 1647, of which the first three hundred Reichstaler were made . From 1647 to 1662, with the exception of five years in the service of the Lutheran congregation, he traveled through Germany and various neighboring countries.
After Johannes Dietrich von Efferen had given permission to build a church on March 3, 1647, the planning of the church began. It is not known who did this. Pastor Blum certainly made contributions to this between his first and second trip.
In January 1647 a plot of land, the Cruetzhof, was bought and shortly afterwards construction of the church began. It was completed for Pentecost in 1648. Despite the donations, it took the community around 70 years to pay off its debts.
Church environment
The church was built in the central area of the small town of Stolberg. The building was near the former main street. Access to the church is via the cemetery in front of it with historical gravestones, which is no longer used.
A staircase leads to a forecourt, from which the solid enclosure of the cemetery can be seen, which reminds of the dangers to the community during the Thirty Years' War .
The church was built from bluestone , which is often used in the region, and adapts to the building material prevailing in the neighborhood. The church was oriented to the east.
The church lacks a steeple and church bells. Even today the bells of the sister church on the Finkenberg replace the missing bells of the Vogelsang church.
Church furnishings
The arch of the church gate, which is studded with heavy nails and can only be opened from the inside, bears the oldest inscription in the city of Stolberg. It comes from the Book of Kings and reads: "Lord, let your eyes be open to this house, night and day over the place about which you said: my name shall be there". A parsonage from the construction period adjoins to the west. The church door can only be opened from the inside, originally by parishioners who were able to use a passage from the parish to the church house.
The oldest piece of jewelery in the church is a church window from 1648. A Bible verse is burned into it. It reads: “Will Auff the Herr Schawe. And await God's (my) salvation. I will come up again and so I am sitting in Fins (ternis) but the Lord is my light, I see my Lost in his grace. Micha on the 7th Capittell. Abraham Von der Weiden, citizen in Hambach And Catharina Verwoelen Eheleudt Ao 1648 ”. Part of the window was damaged and the bracketed text was added.
The altar was made of blue stone blocks. There are four grave slabs in front of him. The first one bears the inscription: Joh. Peter Wuppermann from Elverfeld and Barmen, geb. died in 1699, March 27, 1779. His wife Sara Anna Catharina born. Eichholtz was born in Düsseldorf in 1700, died in 1767. The inscription on the second gravestone is barely legible. Only "anno 1688 Augustus Ehlers" is recognizable. On the third tombstone the saying “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord”. Below it follows: "Here rest the bones of a true friend of Jesus, the maid Catharina Godtschalck, born in Burtscheid near Aachen, died in Stolberg in 1735." Only a lion's coat of arms can be seen on the fourth gravestone. The writing is illegible.
Next to the altar is the baptismal font , which was placed on a tombstone, on which the saying “You alone help me that I live here” can be found next to a lily.
The church did not have a pulpit when it was completed . It was only established through a donation from Pastor Blum's brother, Judge-Martial Justus Blum, in the amount of thirty Reichstalers. Since the amount was not enough, Pastor Blum donated the difference.
The old Bible of the Vogelsang Church was donated by Heinrich August Schleicher on August 6, 1825.
Both the cross and the candlesticks were made from Stolberg brass .
organ
The organ made of wood with baroque cladding was only acquired 53 years after the church was completed in 1701. The instrument was built by the organ builder Johann Jakob Brammertz. The year 1701 was burnt into the interior of the instrument. In World War I the made of tin were organ pipes melted down. In 1938 the organ building company W. Sauer (Frankfurt / Oder) built a new pipe factory in the old case . In 1974 the pipework was replaced again by the organ builder Willi Peter (Cologne) and equipped with a second, electric console. In 2005 the organ was tuned to medium-tone, based on its historical condition.
Today the organ has five registers , four manual registers (manual range C - g 3 : covered 8 ′, principal 4 ′, forest flute 2 ′, mixture IV, 1 1 ⁄ 3 ′) and a sub bass 16 ′ in the pedal (pedal range C - f 1 ). The manual can be linked to the pedal .
Chronology of the Church
The church was damaged in an earthquake on December 26, 1755. The tremors caused a crack that was as wide as a hand and stretched over the entire south side of the church.
After the union proclaimed in 1817 by Friedrich Wilhelm III. there was a negative development for the Stolberg Protestant churches. Aachen joined the proclaimed union in 1837, the Stolberg parish hesitated until 1860. Shortly before that, the pastor of the Vogelsang Church, Pastor Rogge, had been recalled and the rectory had been orphaned. The reformed sister church on the Finkenberg dominated in Stolberg and the Vogelsang church lost more and more of its importance. The parishioners considered a complete closure. A review showed the high need for renovation. At the end of 1918 the presbytery decided to keep the church. The necessary funds have been made available. It was not until 1927 that the work could be started and finished in 1929. In addition to the church ceiling, which has since become dilapidated, the seating, the altar and the pulpit were restored.
Ten years after the completion of the work, woodworms were found in the stalls and the two hundred year old organ finally failed, so restoration work began again. In 1937 new stalls and a new organ were ordered, whereby the case of the old instrument could be preserved. The organ table was moved to the gallery so that the altar could be moved into a lighter area of the church. At the same time, heating was installed in a basement room and new lighting was installed.
literature
- Gustav Lohmann, Kurt Schleicher: History of the Protestant churches in Stolberg and the Finkenberg cemetery (= contributions to the history of Stolberg, volume 10). Published by the Stolberg City Library, Stolberg 1957.
Web links
Individual evidence
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Donatus Chapel (Schevenhütte) | Evangelical Church Zweifall | Finkenberg Church | Herz-Jesu-Kirche (Münsterbusch) | Johanneskapelle (Vicht) | Chapel of the Sorrowful Mother (Werth) | Lady Chapel (Dorff) | Marienkapelle (Schevenhütte) | St. Barbara (Breinig) | St. Brigida (Venwegen) | St. Francis (Stolberg) | St. Hermann Josef (Liester) | St. Hubertus (Büsbach) | St. Johann Baptist (Vicht) | St. Josef (Donnerberg) | St. Josef (Schevenhütte) | St. Josef (Werth) | St. Laurentius (Gressenich) | St. Lucia (Stolberg) | St. Mary's Conception (Dorff) | St. Mary's Assumption (Stolberg) | St. Markus (Mausbach) | St. Rochus (Zweifall) | St. Sebastian (Atsch) Ursulakapelle (Gressenich) | Vogelsang Church
Coordinates: 50 ° 45 '58 " N , 6 ° 14' 3.6" E